Anti-Israel Boycotts Useless ‘Acts of War,' Says Research

Anti-Israel consumer boycotts are ineffective and should be considered “acts of war,” according to a report by Financial Immunities.

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Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu, 27/06/11 17:22 | updated: 17:40

Anti-Israel boycotts don&amp;#39;t work

Israel news photo: YouTube screenshot

Anti-Israel consumer boycotts are ineffective but should be considered as “acts of war,” according to a report based on research conducted by Financial Immunities.

“The ability of organizations to pinpoint many Israeli targets and run an effective consumer boycott of them, is almost non-existent because Israel's exports are driven by thousands of companies, in very diverse industries… with highly diversified export markets, and low international profiles, some of them being subsidiaries of foreign multinationals," the company's CEO Adam Reuter told Globes.

He added that organized boycotts by governments could be more damaging but that they “are not on the horizon.”

“Israel's policy makers should make clear to the world that the Palestinians will mainly harm themselves if they lead economic boycott moves. Israel has tremendous ability to hurt the Palestinian Authority economically, and is likely to use this weapon,” according to Financial Immunities.

Many anti-Israel boycotts have boomeranged with pro-Israel “buy-cotts” featuring hundreds of Israeli supporters buying out the entire stock of Israeli-made products in stores.

Dozens of boycotts have been tried against Israel, ranging from whiskey to cosmetics. Pro-Israel videos have mocked the boycotts, saying that the boycotts are not honest because they do not cover all of made-in Israel products.

A true boycott against Israel should ban the use of generic drugs by Teva Pharmaceuticals, the world’s largest generic drug firm; computers, whose chips are made in the giant Intel factory in Israel; automated optical systems made by Israel-based Orobtech; and dozens of other high-tech innovations, such as disk-on-key and the mobile phone.